


Begin Again

by ktfics



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Getting Together, M/M, Partners to Lovers, Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-New Dangan Ronpa V3, Virtual Reality, vr au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-27 20:04:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18746140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ktfics/pseuds/ktfics
Summary: “Of course, I think it’s time we finally talk about one of my personal favorite scenes from the show, and I’m sure many of you out there will agree with me; the kiss.”Kaito feels his heart stop in his chest.---Kaito, Kokichi, and the consequences of their actions.





	Begin Again

**Author's Note:**

> I've had the idea to write this for a while now, and I thought it would be the perfect quintessential oumota fic to write for my tenth fic on ao3 with a little twist on the usual hangar kiss idea. Title is from the song Begin Again by Purity Ring. My tumblr is @dykeenvy if you want to talk oumota!

Kaito had fought tooth and nail against this.

“What the fuck do you mean we have an interview in a week?” The Team Danganronpa representative had simply given him a blank look, as if he had expected the resistance and was unimpressed by it.

Kaito has to clench his fists and press them to his sides to resist the urge to punch the suited man who, for all intents and purposes, was one of the people currently responsible for his livelihood. “We just fucking woke up, and Ouma can’t even walk yet-”

“The rest of the contestants have been awake for weeks; it’s not our fault you and Ouma-san were so late-”

“Then whose fucking fault was it, huh? Because I sure as hell didn’t ask to die!” The words burn his throat just as potently as his illness did because, apparently, he did ask for this. Apparently, he used to be some fucking psychopath with a death wish. Kaito has to remind himself that none of that matters now; he’s still Momota Kaito, Luminary of the Stars, regardless of what asshole occupied his body before him.

“-Besides, even if you don’t remember signing them, you’re still contractually obligated. If any of you would like to continue recovering, I’d suggest you show up. It shouldn’t take more than a few hours anyway.” In the background, Kaito can hear Iruma scoff and stick up her middle finger at the man.

“Why the hell do we gotta be so quick about this anyway? C’mon, can’t we take it slow-”

“In the past seasons, interviews haven’t started until a few months after the last episode.” Shuichi’s voice, tentative but steady, speaks up from nearby Kaito. No one comments on the source of Shuichi’s knowledge; everyone else in the cast has had more time to begin recovering memories than Kaito and Ouma, and everyone can see Shuichi’s shame whenever he starts talking about Danganronpa a little too quickly before he can stop himself. “Contestants are normally allowed a longer recovery period-”

“It’s because we’re still in that recovery period.” Ouma’s fingers tap out a staccato beat that Kaito vaguely recognizes as a theme song from… somewhere. “Love me or hate me, I’m sure all the fans would just love to see me crippled.”

Kaito winces and puts a hand on Ouma’s shoulder. Things between the two of them have been… different lately, but the boy is still as difficult as ever. “C’mon man, don’t say shit like that-” Kaito turns to the suited man, perhaps to ask for aid in this argument, but he’s already looking down and away from their group. “You can’t be fucking serious!”

The representative coughs to clear his throat before turning back to them. “Ouma-san has been aware of the rules here for a while now. It’s time for the rest of you to catch up.” He leaves the room with a sharp pivot on his heels as Ouma’s serene smile follows him out, as if the boy knows he’s somehow both won and lost the argument at the same time.

“This… this is bullshit! We’re not fucking toys to be played with, dammit!” 

And so, here they are, now a group of 14 with Shirogane and Kiibo gone, filing into a tidy-looking TV studio. A group of couches have been arranged to face an armchair where their interviewer will presumably sit. Kaito feels his previous words burn his tongue as he spots each of the plushies that have been placed on their seats, clad in the same costumes and bright colors that they’ve been forced back into for today’s taping.

When Kaito was little, he had always envisioned getting his own action figure. This is decidedly not what he had wanted, though maybe that doesn’t matter at all, considering those memories are apparently all fake.

 _Stop it_ , he tells himself, _that shit doesn’t matter. I’m still me. I’m alive. I’m… real_.

Kaito allows himself to be guided towards his seat, where he gingerly picks up his own plushie, replete with a felt goatee and all, and places it to the side. Like hell is he gonna hold onto that thing during the interview.

Some of the studio assistants attempt to touch up his makeup and fan out his jacket as he sits, but he bats them away after a few seconds. Ouma is wheeled next to him and handed his own plushie, which Kaito can’t help laughing at.

“What the fuck is up with that hat and cape?” Ouma’s small hands pick at the accessories in question, and Kaito finds himself pointedly looking away from the other boy’s fingers.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember wearing them.” Ouma’s stare remains blank for a second more, before he cocks his head towards Kaito, smiles wide, and proudly presents the doll to him. “What do you think, Momota-chan? Am I adorable or what?”

Kaito’s face burns as he notices one of the stylists giggling in their direction. “Sh-shut the fuck up-”

“Haah!” Iruma’s face is suddenly plunged right between their heads from her seat on the couch behind them. “Would’ya look at that, the shitty shota’s doll is life-sized! The tits on mine are way too fuckin’ small though, I’m way more stacked than this!”

Ouma begins to pout at her. “Well, I’m sure the size of the brain in that doll is the same as yours, you dumb slut-”

Kaito groans. How did a mutual attempt at homicide between those two not manage to instill in them a sense of shame?

Shuichi takes his seat on the couch to Kaito’s left, Maki just next to him, and gives Kaito a sympathetic look.

“Are you feeling alright, Momota-kun?” Kaito forces a smile onto his face; he’s gonna need to have one ready pretty soon anyways.

“Yup, don’t you worry, Shuichi!” The other boy holds his own plushie almost confusedly in his hands as he inspects the doll and its apparently removable cap. Maki seems to have already shoved hers to the side with a blush, the doll’s long yarn hair barely visible from behind one of the pillows.

The next half an hour or so passes by agonizingly slowly as all the stylists and assistants finish setting up the cast as they want and prepping them on what’s going to happen. By the time the studio audience is brought in (because of course this damn thing has to be live too) and they actually begin taping the interview for real, Kaito feels like he’s about to start coughing up blood. Metaphorically, of course.

Their interviewer is a young woman that talks at them more than she talks to them. Shuichi, Maki, and Yumeno get quite a few questions about what it was like to live to the end and what they were planning to do with their winner’s bonus, but the entire cast gets their fair share of questions that they each have their own ways of dealing with.

Maki gives answers that are as brusque as possible to get the interviewer to move on due to lack of material, and when she brings up Maki’s confession, Maki’s tactic turns into that of complete silence, and, well, the interviewer has to move on then.

Shuichi is polite but distant, Akamatsu answers questions with a forced casualty, Shinguji goes on anthropological tangents that are long enough that the interviewer has to cut him off, and Iruma’s swearing is amped up to the point where Kaito thinks it has to be on purpose in order to change the topic, but he can never be sure. Ouma is even more insufferable than usual, and any questions pertaining to his morality or lack thereof get brushed away with riddles that Kaito isn’t sure even Ouma understands.

The interview seems to stretch on for nearly an hour before it finally begins to reach its end. Kaito has managed to answer any questions directed towards him with his usual enthusiasm without letting any more of his anger show, a fact that the interviewer seems to be disappointed with. He actually lets out a sigh of relief when things seem to be wrapping up; his fists have been clenched so tightly that he’s pretty sure he’s got permanent nail marks on his palms.

“Well, it has been enjoyable being able to finally talk with all of you after rooting you on for so long! This certainly has been a memorable season, hasn’t it, everyone?” The audience dutifully claps and cheers in response to her questioning, and Kaito thinks he can visibly see Ouma holding back an eye roll.

“Of course, I think it’s time we finally talk about one of my personal favorite scenes from the show, and I’m sure many of you out there will agree with me; the kiss.” 

Kaito feels his heart stop in his chest.

Surely, they couldn’t be talking about… 

No, no, Shuichi and Akamatsu must’ve kissed or something before she had passed. Iruma and Kiibo had also seemed to have something going on, didn’t they? Hell, he had made a joke about Maki and Shuichi making out when he was gone, maybe they had! Because they weren’t being filmed; Ouma had been sure of that. 

Kaito quickly glances to both sides; Shuichi seems vaguely confused, which isn’t a good sign. Ouma… Ouma is blank faced. Kaito has come to learn that he only makes that face when he’s really hiding something; that definitely isn’t good. Then the interviewer leans forward excitedly in her seat towards their direction, and “not good” can’t even begin to describe the situation anymore. Kaito starts to sweat.

“I’m sure we’ve all noticed that you two have been sticking close to each other all night-” Funny, she doesn’t mention that they were seated next to each other by the studio. “-And I’m sure we’re all very interested in talking about that!”

More claps and cheers from the audience. Ouma gives a smile that Kaito thinks is meant to be placating and starts to speak, but the interviewer continues before he can.

“In fact, I’m so sure we’re all interested in discussing this scene that I’ve prepared a little clip! Now, this footage has never before been seen by any of the contestants, not even those who had died and were allowed to watch the show live, and not even by the mastermind herself since the footage’s transmission was cut off by Ouma-san! Of course, we have the wonderful scientists behind the Danganronpa show to thank for the recovery of the footage from the simulation, so it could be edited in later when the episode was aired! Let’s give them a round of applause, shall we?”

More claps. More cheers. Kaito looks to Ouma, who is, for once, at a loss for words and looking slightly pink. He’s not sure how many of the others have connected the dots yet, but Shuichi’s got his hand to his mouth, Maki looks about ready to strangle them, and Iruma starts laughing so hard Kaito thinks she’s about to piss herself.

“Now, without further ado, let’s take a look, shall we?” The interviewer gestures to the screen behind her, which lights up with the familiar image of the hangar floor and the dying forms of him and Ouma.

Holy shit.

\--

The press is a solid and cold support behind them from where they’re sitting on the floor, like a distant family member that occasionally sends checks in the mail. The only sound that echoes through the hangar is the harsh breathing coming from both of their mouths and mingling in the air, and by this point the scent of blood is so omnipresent in Kaito’s life that he doesn’t even register it anymore.

To his right, Kaito can feel another poison-induced spasm rip through Ouma’s body, and Kaito mirrors a shudder of his own in return. Their arms are pressed up against each other, fingers entangled in a way that if asked, they could always say was an accident. Kaito still feels the barely-repressed urge to hold onto Ouma tighter, to cocoon around the other boy in an effort to contain some of the bleeding. The idea sounds heroic, even romantically so, for a moment, before Kaito remembers that he would just end up coughing up his own blood onto Ouma’s back.

There’s not much time left now.

“Hey, Momota-chan,” Ouma mumbles out the words before shifting slightly, an act that would be imperceptible if not for their physical contact. “Do me a favor?”

“Another one?” Kaito scoffs, though the sound is too close to a cough for either of their comforts.

“Humor me, beloved.” The endearment doesn’t make him yell in the way that he’s supposed to. But then, nothing about this situation is what it’s supposed to be. Funny how things turned out in the end, everything rotting over until Kaito doesn’t remember what anything initially looked like.

“Sure, Ouma.”

“When I die, make sure everyone remembers how nasty I was.” The other boy delivers his words with his usual playful lilt and dramatically punctuates his statement by sticking out his tongue.

“What?”

“Y’know, just remind them that even if I wasn’t the real mastermind here, I was still the big, bad villain. You are good at heroic spiels, are you not?” Kaito turns to face Ouma fully, leaning into the point of connection between their arms. The boy’s face is not carefully blank, as Kaito had been expecting, but is instead graced with a small, almost sympathetic smile that Kaito has never seen on him. With a pang, Kaito realizes that he’ll probably never see it again.

“Is that… will that be easier for you?” Ouma clicks his tongue and turns to meet Kaito’s eyes.

“I just don’t need to think about everyone getting all mopey over me when I’m gone. I’m supposed to be the only liar here, remember?” Kaito doesn’t stop looking at Ouma as he scans his face for any more hints of the boy’s true nature.

“If you’re sure. Yeah. Yeah, whatever, I’ll tell everyone about how awful you are. Were. I’m about to spend the rest of my life lying for you, what’s one more?” To his surprise, Ouma actually looks a little displeased with his answer. “What?”

Ouma hums. “Nothing. But what makes you so sure that you’ll be lying when you remind everyone of my villainy? I did practically kill Gonta-chan, after all-”

“So it is easier for you.” Ouma’s stare turns withering.

“Excuse me?”

“It’s easier for you- when people hate you. That’s your enemy, that’s why you were always saying all that shit, that’s why you’re doing this right now-” Ouma’s grip on his hand turns vice-tight.

“Don’t forget, Momota-chan. I’m mean.” Ouma brings his voice down low and almost purr-like. “I am going to be the death of you, after all.” Kaito feels a familiar anger burn in his chest, but he’s no longer quite sure where it’s directed at. If only they had just a little more time, he thinks, just to make sense of things, just to cut away the rot. He feels his own fingers squeeze just as tight onto Ouma’s in return.

“Y’know, I could say the same to you.” Just like that, Ouma relaxes next to him.

“I know.”

“But fine, I’ll do your favor, or whatever. I’ll tell them you were the worst, that you were nothing more than a lying sack of shit.” Kaito swallows and looks away. “That I never once thought you were more than this. That I never wanted anything to be- to be easier. For you. For us.”

Ouma scoffs and raises an eyebrow at him. “What, did you think we could be friends, or something sweet and terribly misguided like that?”

“No. No, I don’t think we could ever be friends. But I’ve always wanted a rival, you know? And I'm sorry we had to meet here. I think- I think we could have been great.” Kaito finds himself needing to clear his throat as Ouma lets out a bitter half-laugh.

“Don't worry; we will be.” Kaito allows a beat of silence to pass between them before speaking again.

“Man, so many favors. You're really gonna owe me when we get out of here, you know that?” The other boy gives him his biggest smile yet.

“Of course; I'll do anything you want. When we get out of here.”

Kaito echoes Ouma’s laugh from before as he finally acknowledges the usefulness of a lie, and suddenly finds himself dizzy with the blood loss and the thick taste of tragedy lingering in the air.

“I can't believe it. We're actually dying. By the end of tomorrow, we're both gonna be dead.” Kaito brings his free hand up to press against his temple and thinks of all of his childhood dreams, all so abundant and unknowing. “I've never even- I’ve never even kissed anyone.” Ouma lets out some kind of noise that Kaito can’t even begin to decipher.

“Hey, I'm right here, Momota-chan!” Kaito splutters and turns back to face the other boy.

“You can't be fucking serious!” Ouma’s small smile from before returns to his face before he hastily replaces it with one of his more classic shit-eating grins.

“Why not? The hero passionately kisses the villain right before his grisly demise? Sounds like a pretty good story to me.”

Kokichi tilts his head in a way that Kaito doesn’t know if it’s supposed to be a challenge, or a taunt, or just an acknowledgement of how sure he is that Kaito will not rise to this bait. But whatever, Ouma did say he was interesting before, and Kaito’s sure as hell not about to start conforming to his expectations now.

Regardless of what Ouma was trying to gain with his statement, Kaito brings a hand up to the side of his face, fingers reaching towards the nape of neck and thumb resting parallel to his jawline, and pauses, waits for him to back off or shout “it’s a lie!” like he always does when the car-crash that is their personalities brings them too close for comfort.

He doesn’t.

Ouma’s fingers twist into the fabric of his shirt in a way that Kaito is sure will be seared into his memory and his skin for the rest of his life, yanks him in until they’re a mere centimeter apart, and waits for Kaito to complete his set-up.

\--

To this day, Kaito still isn’t sure what possessed him to go through with the kiss, whether it was the anticipatory look on Ouma's face or the illness making a corpse out of him or the supposed lack of witnesses for once, or perhaps just every interaction they'd ever had before that. But now, the damning evidence is right in front of his eyes, in convenient third person view with goddamn background music edited in, because he had, indeed, leaned in to the boy already pressed body-to-body with him, and smashed their lips together.

It wasn't elegant, really; the kiss had lasted too long, and there was too much force, too much of an awareness of the reality of their situation. Kaito had thought that the only time Ouma had really seemed scared of dying was when he had laid on the press, eyes scrunched up as if to hold back some unnameable emotion, a sob leaving his mouth right before the press made its final descent.

But now, Kaito can see the desperation in both of their actions, in the way their hands had pressed into each other like opposing tides, like two boys who were too used to leading others around finally realizing they were out of options and out of anyone left to convince. Kaito has to look away for a second when he bites down on Ouma’s lip, but their sounds do not escape him.

No, the kiss was certainly not elegant, but then again, neither were they. The kiss was not elegant and it was fucking perfect.

Kaito watches as the scene continues after they pull apart, both breathing heavy and looking some combination of terrified and starstruck, until Ouma says something scathing about how romantic it was that they’d be each other’s first and last kiss before he had immediately told him that it was time for Kaito to kill him.

The clip cuts there, and Kaito is left with a screaming and whistling audience, the feeling of Iruma clapping him on the back as she somehow laughs even harder than before, and the vague memory of Maki confessing to him and the knowledge that he’s never admitted to himself; that he didn’t kiss her because of Kokichi, because of his final words, because of their goodbye to each other.

How stupid. How embarrassing.

Kaito would like to turn to Ouma and accuse him of knowing that they weren’t as camera-free as he had claimed, but the other boy looks just as scarred by the existence of that video as he feels. Shit. How the fuck are they supposed to explain this, in a live interview with a goddamn stranger no less?

“Now, am I correct in assuming you two were unaware of the recovery of this footage?” The predatory gaze in the interviewer’s eyes rivals anything Maki or Ouma have ever produced.

Kaito winces. “Uh-”

“Holy fucking shit! Oh my fucking god, did you two also suck each other’s dicks before the shota got offed-” Ouma whips around to shoot Iruma a nasty glare.

“Do you _really_ want to talk about choking before dying, Iruma-chan-”

“Wh-why are you getting so mad at me, I was just joking around-”

Kaito looks away from the spectacle that is Ouma and Iruma interacting for support from elsewhere. Shuichi makes eye contact with him briefly before transferring his gaze to the ground, and Maki is blushing wildly with her hands poised as if she were holding a knife. Not good. Looks like he’s on his own here.

“Hold on a second, it wasn’t, like, a real kiss, y’know-”

“Exactly! Momota-chan and I were just sealing a deal! A kiss is better than a handshake in the eyes of the devil, you know what they say!”

Well, not entirely alone. Honestly, Kaito isn’t sure if Ouma is helping him or hurting him at this point, but then again, what else is new?

The interviewer ignores their excuses. “Ouma-san, what made you ask for that kiss? And Momota-san, what made you do it?”

He and Ouma share a look at the same time; they don’t know. Neither of them know what prompted it, just as neither of them know why they still haven’t left each other, why they’ve stuck by each other’s side for the past week even after all the violence that’s bloomed between them. But Kaito likes to hope that maybe, just maybe, the violence isn’t the only thing that’s grown.

How stupid, how embarrassing.

“Well, I, uh, I just think that,” Kaito flounders for an answer for a few seconds more. “I just think that no one should die alone. That’s… all there is to it.”

As soon as he says it, one glance at Ouma confirms that they both know that he’s spouting bullshit. A kiss on the lips before death would have been an unnecessary comfort for almost anyone, and it was especially unnecessary with Ouma of all people. Still, the interviewer seems to find it romantic, and spends a few moments gushing over his statement.

“And what about you, Ouma-san?”

“Well,” Ouma covers up the remainders of his blush with an excited grin, “It was a manipulation tactic, of course. Had to keep Momota-chan compliant to make sure he would go through with my plan!” The interviewer nods like she was legitimately contemplating the truth of Ouma’s words, even though he hadn’t even initially looked like he was seriously asking for a kiss when he brought up the offer in the video. God, is that what he looked like when he was falling for one of Ouma’s obvious schemes?

“Is that really all there was too it?” Ouma nods enthusiastically.

“Yup yup, of course! Every supreme leader worth their salt knows you have to keep your subordinates happy!”

Kaito scoffs angrily. “Hey, I wasn’t your goddamn subordinate-”

“Really, Momota-chan? You seemed to be taking my orders really well during our kiss!” Ouma narrows his eyes at him in a way that is sure to seem mocking to the viewers, but Kaito feels a blush spread across his chest at memory of the way Ouma had almost imperceptibly directed him during their brief contact, despite Kaito’s pride and general strength advantage over the other boy.

To his side, Kaito can hear Maki mutter out “this is ridiculous.”

“Well, there you have it! Some insider’s information on the happenings of this year’s season of Danganronpa! We’re unfortunately out of time for today, but be sure to keep an eye out for future interviews where we can further discuss this cast’s particular motivations!” The interviewer gives a very pointed look at Kaito and Ouma.

From then on, things are wrapped up in a blur, and their entire group is ushered out of the studio and back into the vans that transported them to the interview. Kaito can only be glad that they’re done with that experience, but the judging looks he keeps getting from the others that share the same van as him are almost as bad. At the very least, Ouma and Iruma aren’t in the same vehicle as him. Unfortunately, Maki and Shuichi are.

Kaito crams back into the backseat of the van with his two sidekicks, with Yumeno, Angie, and Chabashira sitting in the seats in front of them.

Kaito swallows. “Hey, guys, I can explain, really-”

“You’re an idiot.” Maki’s voice cuts right through the act he’s trying to put on.

“Yeah, maybe, but-”

“You’re an idiot, and you should have told me you were in love with Ouma, or whatever.” Kaito turns to her, hands up and eyes wide with shock.

“No, no way, I’m not in love with Ouma, we were just-” Maki shoots him a look that immediately stops his words.

“Kaito.” She draws in a breath and pinches the bridge of her nose. “I already told you I don’t feel the same way I did at the end of the game. We don’t owe each other anything. You shouldn’t feel like you need to make… excuses, or whatever, for what you’re really feeling anymore.”

Shuichi rests a hand on Kaito’s shoulder. “You can be honest with us, Momota-kun. You spent such a long time in the game not telling us when you were sick because you didn’t want us to worry, but we’re not just your sidekicks, we’re your friends. You can talk to us.” Kaito nervously laughs in response.

“Okay, but seriously, I’m not in love with Ouma of all people-” His pleas go unheard.

“Tenko thinks if you dirty boys are in love with each other you should just date so us girls don’t have to deal with you.”

“Atua agrees! True love should not be interfered with, Kaito!”

“Nyeh, at least you can keep up with Ouma and distract him so we don’t have to deal with him.”

“Guys, stop! Kokichi and I aren’t in love, we’re just… good… enemies.” His argument sounds weak even to his ears, and he turns back to Maki for support. “You can’t actually be that okay with this, you looked super pissed during the video!”

At his words, Maki’s glare darkens once more. “You think I’d be okay with the fact that you chose that rat over me?” Kaito watches Shuichi give Maki an encouraging smile, and she forces her stance into a more relaxed posture. “But. I will support you. And I will,” Maki grits her teeth, “Support Ouma. From a distance.”

Kaito can’t help flashing back to the image of Maki’s hand wrapped around Ouma’s neck. “You will?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, that rat did… die for us. And if anyone can get along with him, you’ve already proven that it’s you.” Kaito smiles at Maki’s words, thrilled with her own self-awareness and self-acceptance, before remembering exactly what they’re talking about.

“This is great and all, and I’m happy you don’t hate Ouma so much anymore, believe me, I am, but I’m still not planning on datin’ the guy!” Shuichi just gives Kaito a gentle smile.

“Momota-kun, you can be honest with us, but you can also be honest with yourself, you know that, right? I don’t mean to make assumptions, but it does seem as if you treat Ouma-kun… differently than you do the rest of us.” Kaito makes one last attempt at defending his case.

“I know, but I just said we were enemies, c’mon guys-”

“Exactly.” Maki gives him another exasperated glare before turning away. “He gets under your skin.”

Under his skin, huh? Kaito thinks about every teasing look, every chase sequence, every argument, every game, every night spent awake trying to solve the boy who had died by his hands and then smiled at him upon waking up. Kaito thinks about Kokichi’s hands gripping his shirt and then slotting into the groove of his shoulder, fingers insistently tilting his head to get the angle right in a way that should’ve been pushy but instead allowed Kaito to follow his motions and then polish their rough movements.

Holy shit.

As they pull up to the private hospital they’ve been stationed in and step out of their vans, Kaito watches as Ouma is wheeled out by Gonta while Iruma tails them.

“Ouma-kun, Gonta thinks it’s really wonderful that you and Momota-kun are dating!” Gonta gives the much smaller boy a smile as Iruma leans down to wrap an arm around Ouma’s shoulders and start shouting.

“Hah, I knew the entire fuckin’ time you two were gettin’ off on yelling at each other, that ass-tronaut was obviously a total closet case-”

“Iruma-chan,” Ouma hisses out through a forced grin before wriggling out of her grip, “please, shut up! And keep your dirty hands off of me, who knows what they’ve touched recently!”

Kaito shoots Shuichi and Maki an apologetic glance before turning away from them to half-jog up to where Ouma is seated.

“Hey.” Ouma gives Iruma a pointed look to shut her up before she can interrupt them, and then faces Kaito.

“Yes, Momota-chan?” His voice is sickly sweet in a way that Kaito is sure is intended to make him want to the end the conversation, but Ouma isn’t getting out of this that easily.

“We should probably have a talk, man. After all, communication is the most important skill an astronaut can have!”

Ouma seems thoroughly unimpressed with Kaito’s thumbs up. “Oh, I would, but heart-to-hearts do tend to give me hives, Momota-chan, especially since I don’t actually have a heart. Sounds crazy, I know, but it’s a rare birth defect. Anyways, I’ll be going now-” Kaito reaches down to place a hand on Ouma’s arm, right on the same spot that the crossbow bolt had pierced his flesh, and he swears he doesn’t imagine the shiver that goes through both of them at the contact.

“You can run off now, but I’ll follow.” Kaito half expects Ouma to make some joke about Kaito stalking him or something equally stupid like that, but the other boy instead gives him that same small smile that Kaito is just beginning to become familiar with.

“Alright then, Momota-chan. How about we play a game together?” Kaito’s gaze turns from welcoming to cautious in a split second.

“A game?”

\--

Kaito allows Ouma to guide him towards the hospital’s small game room, where he immediately orders Kaito to start setting up a game of Jenga.

“Is this really necessary?” Ouma nods enthusiastically before placing the last set of blocks on the top of the tower.

“Of course, Momota-chan! I have to have something to entertain me while I’m talking to you!” Kaito rolls his eyes.

“Cut the crap, man. Can’t we just… talk?” Like they did in the hangar, Kaito thinks, right before Ouma died and any vulnerability was supposed to be inconsequential and unrecorded.

“Sure, sure. I’ll go first.” Instead of immediately saying anything, Kokichi manages to slip a middle block out from the tower. “You know, I wonder what it sounded like when I died.”

Kaito is beginning to learn that giving Kokichi free range in any situation is a mistake. “Yeah, well,” he swallows and looks away. “I don’t.”

“Oh, I know. But isn’t it great, knowing that I could just look it up, any time I wanted?” Kaito hadn’t really considered that; not only was the footage of their kiss apparently out there, but so was Ouma’s death, and all that time they spent setting everything up and arguing, and his own mad dash to clean up the scene and clamber into the exisal before the electrobomb expired. 

“Give me a preview, Momota-chan. Was it more of a squish or a squelch? Oh, oh, or maybe there was a nice crunch-”

“Don’t- just. Don’t.” Ouma pauses then, before gesturing for Kaito to remove his own block. And Kaito does so, because if there’s one thing he’s never going to be able to get away from, it’s playing Ouma’s games. “What are you getting at, anyways?”

“If I tell you I run a super secret organization of 10,000 members, who’s the bigger liar; me, for saying that, or Team Danganronpa, for making me believe it? For making me want to?” The other boy gives Kaito a hard stare.

“I didn’t think you of all people cared that our personalities are scripted, or lies, or whatever.” Ouma hums before his hand darts out and yanks a block from the very bottom of the tower, nearly toppling it in one go.

“My point, Momota-chan, is that underneath everything they intended to give us, underneath all of the plot points and planned entertainment, I’m at my very best when I’m ruining things.” Ouma gives him one last considering gaze before his hand reaches out again to almost lazily push at one side of the tower, and Kaito can see it fall in his mind’s eye. He understands, now, what Ouma is so scared of, why he’s been so reluctant to let any of them in up until this point.

Kaito reaches out before it can collapse. He rests one hand on the side of the tower to keep it standing and another on Ouma’s to keep him from pushing again.

“C’mon, you don’t have to lie about this, Ouma. Not to me, and not to yourself.”

Ouma looks up at him sharply, hand slack in his grasp. “What?”

“Even with all that shit you pulled, you saved us, y’know? From what I can tell, Shuichi and the others wouldn’t have been able to figure out any of the stuff they needed to end the game without you proving it to them. I don’t like thinking that the game taught us anything, that it helped us grow or whatever; I think that’s bullshit the therapists say just to make us feel better. But if there is one thing I have learned, it’s that some things need to be ruined.” Kokichi starts to shrink away from his hold, and Kaito can practically see the quip he’s got prepared on the tip of his tongue, but he cuts him off before it can be let loose and just holds a bit tighter onto his hand and runs his thumb across the other boy’s knuckles.

“Lies, truth, whatever. I don’t care if you keep lying. What really matters in life are the things you consider important enough to protect and the actions you take to do that, and I know what you’re willing to die for now. You can’t hide that from me; it’s too late, I already believe in you.” Kaito gives Ouma a thumbs up with his hand that was holding the tower and he can see the other boy holding back an exasperated expression.

“Besides, you still owe me, you know that? You’re not leaving me now. And you really are naive if you think you can ruin the Luminary of the Stars that easily!” Ouma does roll his eyes at him then.

“If you think I couldn’t ruin your life in less than a day you’ve got another thing coming to you, Momota-chan!”

Kaito holds up a determined fist in response. “Well, we’re just going to have to find out, then! But I think we’ve still got a few games left in us before things are ruined completely!”

Kaito goes to take his turn and pulls a block out from the tower, which immediately falls apart under his hands from the previous stress enacted upon it.

The room is dead silent for a couple seconds, until Ouma promptly bursts out laughing. “You- you idiot!” The other boy doubles over, barely able to talk through his laughter. “You completely ruined my metaphor! Momota-chan has- has doomed us!”

Kaito angrily examines the pile of blocks now spread out across the table and onto the floor as Kokichi’s laughter dies down. “Sh-shut up! I can rebuild it, hold on!”

Unbeknownst to Kaito, Kokichi watches with a fond gaze as the other boy gets down on his hands and knees to pick up the scattered Jenga pieces all over the floor.

“Yeah,” he mutters after a moment. “I guess you can.”

“What was that?” Kaito starts to emerge from the floor, but not before he bumps his head on the table and lets out a curse.

Kokichi gives another small laugh. “Nothing! Buuut I did say I would do anything you wanted in return for your favor, and even a liar like me keeps his promises, so I guess I can stick around for a little while. Y’know, just to keep an eye on you. Make sure your life is being sufficiently ruined by someone other than yourself.”

Kaito finally returns to his seat and starts stacking the Jenga blocks once more. “Ha! You wish! I’m Momota Kaito, you’re never gonna be able to keep me down! I’m gonna be the best goddamn partner you’ve ever had!”

Kokichi’s heart skips a beat in his chest, and Kaito also stills, the two boys making eye contact for just a moment before both blush wildly and look back to the game in front of them.

Partners, huh? Partners in crime turned partners in life. Well, neither of them know the first thing when it comes to romance or how to feel about love or what they’re going to be in the future, but they can both work with that for now. And how beautiful is it, to have so much more life laid out in front of them, to have so much more time to figure everything out?

Kaito begins the game again and starts to push on a block as Kokichi lets him know when the tower starts to get a bit unstable.

Yes, they can definitely both work with that.

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to write a less angsty VR fic where everyone was more stable and y'know actually friends for once and I've been wanting to explore the consequences of a hangar kiss in this setting so this fic was the result of that. I've also always been pissed at how Kodaka had kaito call kokichi a lying sack of shit after the fifth trial so this is my own personal explanation for why kaito of all people would've said that. Also, bonus points for anyone who can guess what song I had in mind for the background music that played during kaito and kokichi's kiss. Thank you for reading!


End file.
